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Author
Prats Gonzalo, Lluís
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Abstract
Bacteria have traditionally been considered small animals, as described by Antonie van Leeuwenhoeken in 1684, with a lack of social dimension. It was believed that their activities, completely individual except in a few exceptions, were reduced to food intake, growing, reproducing and adapting to the environment. However, recent discoveries have radically changed the view of the microbial world. It is now known that bacteria have sophisticated signalling systems, which allow them to communicate with each other.
This fascinating mechanism of intercellular communication is called "Quorum Sensing" (QS), which has become the focus of numerous studies due to its possible therapeutic and diagnostic potential. Bacteria use extracellular chemical signals to coordinate in actions such as bioluminescence production, competition, antibiotic synthesis, polysaccharide synthesis, and also virulence-related exoenzymes in pathogens, such as biofilm formation, sporulation, and production of virulence factors.
This thesis studies the detection of one of the chemical signals used by Staphylococcus aureus in QS for the production of virulence factors in patients with infectious diseases. This will allow us in the future to develop immunochemical techniques for the early diagnosis of infectious diseases caused by virulent bacteria.
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